Corruption
by Cheezbucketgirl
Summary: The war between the Earth, the hells, and the heavens had always been absolute until one of the soldiers began to doubt his cause.
1. Chapter 1

Well, after a long wait, here this story finally is! (Who am I kidding? Like there's anyone who cared enough to know of this thing's existence before now.) I have lots of fun writing this, as you'll probably be able to tell.

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Unity between the realms has always been an illusion, one the queens and kings have been determined to maintain over the many years. Though representatives of all three realms have come to this one, undivided room beyond the influence of any single realm's influence, the detachment between the races is obvious; the hard-working but deceitful humans of Tellus, the pure but aloof seraphs of Aurae, and the clever but cruel demons of Infernum. We're physically separated even though we're all in the same space, making sure there's as much room as possible between ourselves and our potential enemies with many small scuffles and venomous words when someone accidentally wanders too close. It's probably a good thing I don't have a choice where to stand, my place beside the seat of my queen. It's best if I can't start any fights.

With no sign of the meeting starting even though we've been here at least an hour, I can sense Larxene getting impatient, tapping her dangerously long fingernails on the finely carved arm of her chair. Being the often preferred method for her to make her point without having to do anything herself, I can't help but smirk slightly in anticipation and cross my arms over my bare chest. Finally, her impatience snaps and she turns her sharp eyes to glare at me. "Axel! Get everyone's attention," she snarls, turning back to glare ahead of her. "Now!"

I can only grin wider at being given a direct order to have fun, breathing out slowly. There's not much I can use for fuel in the large, ornate stone room, aside from bodies which are, unfortunately, off-limits, but there's enough for the split second I need to make my point. Inhaling sharply, I urge a single, fluid wall of flame up along the walls right to the ceiling for a single instant, burning away the thin layers of dust and mould, before exhaling more sharply and letting it disappear.

Startled screams of surprise and fear echo belatedly from the mass of humans as the wave of heat washes through the room and the idle chatter silences immediately. Every eye in the room slowly turns towards us.

Grinning at the result, Larxene stands, the sheer folds of her cloak falling around her to obscure her figure and her dark, feathered wings folded neatly against her back. "If you all don't mind, there are issues I really need to deal with," she begins unceremoniously, voice ringing through the room with a clear note of irritation. "The sooner I can finish dealing with all of you the better."

There is a moment of silence before the King of Tellus stands as well. "What is it, Queen of Infernum?" King Terra asks, distrust obvious in the tilt of his eyebrows.

Letting out a brief, enchantingly dangerous laugh, Larxene puts on an expression of false hurt. "Well, I'm afraid we have a problem. It would seem our dear queen of the skies doesn't trust me." Without instruction, Marluxia steps forward from her other side of her chair and a slight tremor ripples through the stone ground. Slowly, a pale body rises above the small crowd of demons, suspended by branching, thorny vines entwined around his torso and limbs, silver hair covering his face. Blood is the only colour on his white armour where the vines have snuck past it to dig thorns into his skin.

"Riku!" a voice nearly screams from the opposite side of the room, and, amused, I look over to see the brunette boy perpetually by the Queen of Aurae's side jump forward the same instant the queen's face goes white. He looks like he is about ready to run over, but Queen Kairi throws her arm in front of him to stop him.

"What's this about?" she asks, voice higher than normal in stress.

Larxene's lips twist into the slightest, mocking smirk. "Why don't you tell me, Queen of Seraphs? He was found in _my_ realm. When questioned, he became all but mute, and, though he;s not an angel, his mind was immune to us. That must mean you or the magicians under your command had influence in protecting him. Would you care to clear that up for us, Your Highness?" More than usual, my queen's voice is filled with scorn.

"Let him go!" Queen Kairi begs, voice so soft we probably wouldn't have been able to hear her if it wasn't deadly silent.

Larxene laughs again. "Not until you tell us all, dear Queen!" she sings tauntingly. There's a sudden, slight shift in the air as she starts to separate the naturally occurring charges in the room with deliberate slowness, making sure everyone knows what she's about to do.

Looking pained, Queen Kairi jumps to her feet. "Stop!"

Larxene, having already created a charge suitable to her goal, silently raises a slim eyebrow.

Squeezing her eyes shut, the Queen of Aurae turns her face to the floor. "Is it such a crime to try to monitor my enemies' actions?" she murmurs, again barely loud enough for us to hear.

Larxene's grin twitches wider. "Wrong answer." In an instant, she releases the charges in the air and a single, nearly straight bolt of lightening flashes from the arched ceiling to the silver-haired seraph. A scream rings from him as his entire body lashes out in protest, aggravating the wounds from the thorns. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Marluxia flinch slightly as the electricity flows through his vines, but he and I are used to Larxene's shocks so it doesn't really affect him, though a few of the lesser demons who stood to close to Riku yell out in pain.

As if the invisible barrier between the races shattered because of that, the brunette boy yells out wordlessly and bolts straight towards us, despite his queen's warning yell of, "Sora! Don't!" In only a step, a plain silver keyblade with a yellow handle is summoned to his hands.

Taking advantage of the space he has to travel, I glance expectantly at Larxene. Knowing exactly what I want, as usual, she snorts in amusement and nods, sitting back down. "Have fun." Oh, the benefits of being predictable.

Since the boy is already dangerously close, I don't waste a second in running forward, summoning my chakrams in time to draw one in front of myself to block a blow. "Let Riku go!" the boy, Sora, demands, jumping back to slash at me again. Though I didn't know his name before, I've heard of his prowess as a wielder of one of the legendary keyblades. None of his apparent skills show themselves in his obvious desperation and anger, and avoiding him is an easy task. Step here; block that hit; knock him off balance a little; never hit him directly to draw out the dance and annoy him as much as possible. It's almost laughable; the worse he does, the more frustrated he gets, the clumsier he becomes. The only sounds in the entire room are his noisy grunts and pants. No one else seems to even be breathing except for the demons, who hardly care whether or not I win. Even though he has the same crystalline armour as Riku and I'm wearing nothing more protective than pants made from a thick, fireproof fabric, everyone knows this fight has only one outcome.

Finally, clearly exhausted, he stumbles over his own feet and falls forward. Without hesitation, I kick out to knock him onto his back and keep my bare, slightly clawed foot planted firmly on the centre of his chest plate while I step over him. Before he has the chance to struggle, I narrow in on the unprotected joint of his elbow of his arm laying out beside him on the floor and drive in the point of one chakram until it meets the floor and a scream of agony explodes satisfyingly from the keyblade wielder. The silence in the room persists even after Sora's scream has echoed into silence. Everyone's thinking the same thing: it's his own fault. He attacked first. It was a fair one-on-one fight. No one can interfere.

Sora seems to finally be thinking the same and realizes that he doesn't stand any sort of a chance now. We're prohibited from killing each other during these stupid meetings, but that doesn't mean we can't keep his friend to kill afterwards, and the brunette seems to have realized that his fighting may be the catalyst for us to do that. Not that anyone other than me would care if I got hurt. I'd hardly care either, but Larxene would barely even notice unless it somehow impaired my ability to do whatever work she wants whenever she wants it. Either way, maybe Sora's smarter than his impulsive attack would make him seem if he actually thought that through.

As we stay stone still in the deadly quiet room, though, an impatient voice makes itself heard in my head. The voice is constant, but louder now. Unlike Marluxia's plants, Larxene's electricity, or any power of any other demon I know of, fire is impatient, greedy, and perpetually hungry. I can usually find any number of ways to keep it quiet and fed with whatever dust and mould is around, funnelling my own energy into it if there isn't enough fuel, but now there is an interesting prospect. There's a body, a helpless lump of fuel-friendly flesh, in front of me. As long as I don't kill him, no one can really protest. I've heard this boy is an angel, anyway. I've never seen an angel's wings before, and I'm curious where they hide them. Maybe melting away his armour will reveal the secret.

Unlike before, I breathe deeply and evenly. He immediately feels the heat, I'm sure, though he doesn't react for a few full seconds. As soon as I see him realize what's happening, eyes widening, I inhale more deeply, telling the fire it's time to feed. Flames immediately burst from his arm where my chakram is piercing it. His initial yelp of surprise quickly morphs into a yell of pain. Despite his reaction, though, I'm really not being all that hard on him. I'm urging the fire to keep calm and cool, conserving oxygen and slowly gnawing at one layer of skin and fabric at a time. His screaming only intensifies and he thrashes violently under me as the fire spreads over his whole arm, even under his armour, and I allow myself a wide, pleased grin.

"Cut it out!" a strange voice suddenly yells, giving me only a moment's warning before something flies through the air past me, grazing my cheek and slicing it neatly open. Caught off guard, I stumble backwards, throwing my wings out to keep my balance, and look up in time to see a flurry of blindingly white feathers sweeping over Sora then pulling back to reveal a blond figure crouched over him, hurriedly throwing my chakram and the armour away from the brunette's arm to smother the pitiful fire.

Ignoring the displeasure of being interrupted, I reach up to touch the shallow wound on my cheek. After a second, the blond rises, helping Sora as the brunette stands as well, nursing his blistering arm. A second later, there's a short flash of light behind me and a keyblade different from Sora's, this one mostly white with blue, yellow, and purple on the blade, appears in the blond's hand. But that's not what I pay attention to. Matching his furious expression, his wings are raised, trembling slightly as if he might take to the air to attack again any second. Since no angel has ever revealed his or her wings during a meeting, this is a big, startling first for me. "So, they are as beautiful as I've been lead to believe," I remark, breaking the tense silence.

Hearing the obvious teasing note in my voice, his scowl deepens. "Be quiet!" he snaps, turning to Sora and gesturing back to the seraphs. Though he casts one last, hopeless glance at Riku, Sora follows him back. So I can admire my blistering handiwork in Sora's skin and the wings the blond hasn't hidden again, I walk backwards the few steps to Larxene's side, letting my chakrams fade away.

Larxene, who hasn't moved an inch, dramatically touches her fingertips to her temple and stands again. "Well, would you look at the mess we have now," she remarks, voice high and mocking. Moving her hand for a more clear view, her eyes flash at Queen Kairi. "If I'm not going to be told what's going on, I guess I have no choice but to leave." Simultaneously, Larxene and many of the other demons open several shadowy portals, each leading to whatever part of Infernum we need to get to.

"Wait! Don't leave!" Queen Kairi cries as we turn to our portals, Marluxia coaxing the vines to throw Riku through the one Larxene opened before letting them return into the cracked floor. I let the others pass through the portal before me, looking back to the Seraphs. Most of them look bewildered, overwhelmed, or upset, including the queen and Sore. But not that spiky-haired blond. He continues glaring at me, enraged and helpless to stop us. There seems to be some kind of interesting new fire glowing in that one. I can't wait until whatever opportunity presents itself next to see him again. I take care to quickly wink at him before I step into the portal myself.

A second of cool darkness washes over me until I step out into the warm, orange glow of the palace. Riku lies splayed across the floor, bleeding onto the stone and trembling slightly as he tries to get his limbs beneath him. Larxene walks past him without looking at him. "Get him locked back up before he gets his strength back," she instructs absently, heading down a hall with Marluxia at her side. Since I'm the only one left with him, I assume the order was directed at me, so I stoop to pick Riku up and sling him over my shoulder less than carefully, using a wing to pin him down. He hisses softly in pain as I carry him down the hall opposite the one the others went down but doesn't struggle. His armour is uncomfortable and digs into my shoulder, but I ignore it since I won't have to carry him long.

I realize that Larxene is keeping me away form whatever secret conversation she and Marluxia are about to have with whoever else, but I don't really care. She's only ever pretended to trust me for the sake of keeping me firmly under her thumb, but we both know it's a lie. She well knows I ally myself with her for no reason other than boredom. I have absolutely no personal interest in keeping Infernum safe and intact, I just prefer actually working to the dull, non-existence I had outside the palace.

Finally, at the bottom of a set of stairs, I reach a row of barred rooms along one wall. Turning to the first cell, I toss Riku inside and quickly close and lock the door with the key hanging at the beginning of the hall.

Riku groans in pain as he hits the floor, and I pause to turn and look at him as he slowly pushes himself upright. Dully noting that the cell is filled with shadows, very little light reaching into the shallow, windowless room, I find a candle hanging from a pain holder on the wall inside and let a spark light the wick. Washed suddenly in the dim orange glow, the silverette looks up at the candle in surprise for a second before returning his suspicious glare to me.

I snort in amusement at his expression. "Relax. I'm not going to burn you or anything," I assure, smirking. "We're not going to kill you unless provoked."

Eyes still locked on me, he grabs the edge of the hard bed beside him and pulls himself onto it, "You hurt Sora," he accuses, eyes narrowing.

Chuckling at the first words he's spoken since capture, I lean back against the wall behind me. "I can justify that easily; one, he attacked first so what I did can be considered self-defense; two, demons have a reputation to maintain; three, it's hardly my fault I was born able to control fire. It's hardly an easy element to contain."

He only seems to grow tenser. "That doesn't really justify it."

"I don't expect you to understand." Still smirking slightly, I raise my index finger. "Think about it this way: it's either my enemies or me."

Still, he doesn't seem convinced. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I sigh and shake my head. Honestly, I don't expect a seraph to ever understand. They're perfect, after all. "Demons are at a distinct disadvantage. Both humans and seraphs make no efforts to hide the fact that we're the bad guys. the only thing keeping Infernum intact is us keeping up a show of strength to keep both of you attacking us here. A war involving the armies of all three realms would destroy wherever it takes place, regardless of who wins or loses." I raise an eyebrow slightly as he finally looks away, seeming to actually think about it.

"I guess that makes sense," he grudgingly relents after a few seconds, eyebrows still knit.

My grin widens in my victory. He still can't understand, but that's okay. "Exactly. However, we also have an advantage in that sense: neither of you trust us, so we can constantly be prepared for deceit, but you pretend to be allies, so you can never tell when you'll be betrayed." It's happened before, and it'll happen again, I'm sure. Humans should have remained ignorant to the power struggle between seraphs and demons.

Riku's eyes immediately flick back up to me, though with less anger than before. "Why are you talking about this with me?" he demands quietly.

I laugh, to his obvious surprise. "Why not? You're not a bad person, you just happen to be on the wrong side." He opens his mouth to retort, but I quickly raise a hand to cut him off. "By that, of course, I mean the wrong side of me. Otherwise, it's all relative."

Very slowly, he nods. "I hate to admit it, but you're making a lot of sense." One of his silver eyebrows gradually lifts. "You're not as bad as you let on."

I chuckle at his cold tone. "Very kind of you. I'd warn you against warming up to me, though," I tease.

"I wasn't panning on it," he grumbles, turning away from me. "I'll never betray my friends."

"Never said you would." Since I doubt this conversation will be able to entertain me much longer, I turn back to the stairs without another word. Time to find Larxene and see what kind of plan she's concocting for our little friend.


	2. Chapter 2

Whew. This took me forever, didn't it? I'm sorry. Really, I am. Incredibly sorry.

Also, this chapter's a bit short (or, rather, a lot short) but I'll make up for it, I swear.

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I stir the cool air with my leathery wings to coax the candles to grow and produce more heat, watching Riku out of the corner of my eye. Not that he'd have a chance if he tried to run. No point in risking wasting a hostage, though. The queen Kairi obviously cares a great deal about him, so he'll be great to dangle over the Seraphs' heads if they try to do anything. He's a great advantage and will be interesting to watch as long as he's here.

Our other advantage, however, is beginning to get more than a little boring. Though he's possibly the greatest mind in any of the realms, he certainly doesn't understand the concept of speed.

A little more vigorously, I fan my wings to give the candles around the room and behind me more air, helping them grow to a good few feet tall to make my point.

Turning his icy green eyes to me, Vexen glares and takes a step away from the nearest candle to him. "Control him, will you?" he snaps before turning back to his desk, scattered with open books and loose notes.

Xion glances at me from her task of taking discarded book books back to their spots on the shelves and smiles softly. "Calm down. He'll find the right one soon enough."

"Then tell him to hurry up about it," I retort, giving the short girl a wink to let her know that I know what I'm doing.

Immediately, Vexen whirls at me and a wave of cold ripples through the room. "Hurry up? Have you no respect whatsoever? You clearly have no idea how much work I do around here while you laze about the castle and sleep around!"I stop paying attention to him to grin at Xion who is hiding her laughter behind a book. As Vexen continues fuming, he turns back to his desk again, rifling through his papers carelessly before picking one out and turning back to me. "You've seen my accomplishments," he continues, stepping close enough that I can see the ice crystals bristling along his hair and hands. Seems like a did a good job. It's been a while since I've seen him this pissed. "I'm the most intelligent being here and I wish to be treated as such." He finally looks back at me, wagging the paper threateningly at me. "Unless you _want_ to become a part of my next experiment."

Damn, he got serious quickly. Conscious of the sudden danger, I release the energy fed to the candle flames so they can return to their natural size. He tried one of his "experiments" on me once before. I'm not letting that happen again.

The slightest cold smile twists his lips at his obvious victory, and he turns back towards Riku, lifting the paper in front of his face. Riku, having returned to his determined silence since our last chat, scowls and looks away. After a quiet minute Vexen looks back up. "Well," he says calmly, folding the paper and putting it back on his desk, "I would have to guess that, under the strain of distance, the queen's protective spell will only last for another day or two at most."

Riku flinches at that, and his scowl deepens. I chuckle at his reaction. "Well, wonderful. A couple days and your mind's an open book." A slight snarl escapes his clenched teeth, and his turquoise eyes flash frustratedly at me. I laugh more loudly. "Anything else?"

"Tell Larxene not to shock him anymore," Vexen says, with obvious annoyance towards our queen, turning back to his desk again. "I know it's a hobby of hers, but it's going to start taking its toll. Don't want him dying, now do we?"

"Of course not." I stand and step over to Riku.

"Oh! Wait!" I pause and look over as Xion puts the books she was carrying back down on a table and goes over to Vexen, twisting her thin fingers around his hand, "Could I please go with him, Vexen?"

I try not to laugh as the ice demon visually softens, putting his hand on top of his pseudo-daughter's head to ruffle her hair with the slightest hint of a smile. "Of course." Even though he doesn't like me, he always seems to want nothing more than to keep her happy. He also knows that I have no motivation to do anything "bad" to her.

Giving him a smile too honestly sweet to belong to a demon, she jumps into a hover high enough to kiss his cheek. "Thank you!"

He gives her an oddly proud look as she flutters over to my side. I finally can't stop myself from letting out a short laugh. "Well, in that case, let's go." Letting Riku stay half a step in font of me, I leave the lab with Xion close behind.

I look at Xion out of the corner of my eye and smile slightly. "I haven't seen you around much lately. Daddy keeping you busy?"

She giggles and fans her wings a bit. "He always does. You know he doesn't like me going out too much. He worries."

With a chuckle, I give Riku a quick glance to make sure he goes down the stairs to his cell. "Well, you've only existed a year now. I'm sure he'll lighten up eventually." I'd love that to happen. Being artificially created by the scientist, she's a well of unknown possibilities. Though Vexen has created many other sentient beings before, they've all been twisted little creatures with little resemblance to true demons and are used as a medial labour source until they break down and "die." Xion was the first one he bothered giving a truly humanoid appearance and a mind to match, Who knows what she could turn into, despite her kind nature, if Vexen let others at her more often.

When we reach the cell, Riku silently goes in and sits down, expression as hateful and sullen as ever. I again lock the door, chuckling softly. "Well, Xion," I say, hanging the key back up. "What would you like to do now? Maybe take a walk outside?"

Though her eyes were locked on Riku until I spoke, she turns and nods, smiling as per usual. Nodding back, I lead the way down along the hall of cells, away from the stairs. Though most of the cells are currently empty, a couple of them grumble as we pass until, in the second to last one, the cell's occupant lets out a shriek and throws itself at the bars, clawed hands straining towards us. Though I'm not surprised by it, Xion lets out a loud squeak of surprise and jumps back. I don't stop to wait for her to catch up and go out to the dull orangish light outside.

When she does catch up, the dark-haired girl stays close to my side and keeps looking back as if worried the monster will escape and come after us. "What was that?" she asks, sounding scared yet excited at the same time.

I smirk. "That was an unlucky vampire, I'm afraid." With a shrug, I turn towards the rock formations hugging and often incorporating the wall of the palace.

A cute, confused pout turns down her mouth. "A vampire? Are you sure? Zexion's a vampire, right? He's nothing like that thing."

I chuckle. "Yep, he is. So is Luxord, but I'm pretty sure he's only a quarter or something like that."

Xion stops walking to stare curiously back to where we emerged. "Well, than, what was wrong with that one?"

A little surprised this hasn't been a part of Vexen's strict teaching regimen, I turn back to grin at her. "That's just what happens when a vampire resist his nature, sweetie." Though she raises an eyebrow at the endearment, I push on. "Any of us could go downhill like him if we deny ourselves."

"Nature? So, that vampire...didn't drink blood?"

I nod and snicker. "Good guess. We've had him locked up for about two weeks now, but he'd stopped about a month before then. Or just couldn't for whatever reason. Maybe his mouth or fangs got hurt somehow. I'm not getting close enough to check it out." Assuming we're not going anywhere for a bit, I lean back against a large nearby rock. "Vampires are pretty unlucky little things in that sense. Most of us just degenerate and eventually die, but they gradually go mad and lose themselves until they finally die." But then I remember a potential fate of mine and I suddenly don't feel as bad. At least they can't feel anything when they finally shriek their last breath.

Her stone blue eyes widen in shock. "That's terrible!" She's quiet for a moment, lost in some train of thought. "What about you?" she eventually asks. "And what happens if you don't do whatever you have to do?"

Always willing to demonstrate at least one half of my heritage, I quickly find a small, dry bush and let a decent sized flame consume it, quickly eating away the dry collection of twigs before running out of fuel and snuffing out. "If I don't feed fire enough, it'll eat me." A fate I'd really rather avoid. To negate the risk of Vexen dissecting me for telling his little creation too many nasty details, I leave out the consequence of having a succubus for a mother. Diluted as the need may be by my mixed blood, feeding off sexual energy is still a requirement if I want to continue my miserable life.

Xion watches a couple pitiful embers struggle for life in the ashy remains of the bush for a minute until the glow burns out completely. "Well, that explains a lot about you," she says with a sharp, teasing glint in her eyes.

I laugh loudly at that. "That it does. Pyromania isn't something I'm ashamed of."

Her cute little, semi-transparent, bat-like wings lifting her into the air again, she tilts herself back in thought. "I wonder what could kill me. I'll have to ask Vexen. I don't want to accidentally die."

"None of us do, sweetie."

This time, she ignores my mocking tone, seeming distracted by something. Curious, I silently watch her until she turns her head back towards me. "Do you hear that?" she asks softly, slightly elongated ears twitching a bit.

"What is it?"

She hesitates. "I'm not sure... I think it's...fighting. Inside."

In an instant, my chakrams are in my hands and I'm running back to the door, leaving Xion stunned in my dust.

Inside, the vampire is screeching and clambering at the bars again, this time towards a flash of brilliantly white wings at the other end of the hall. I pause for only a moment to watch as the fully armoured angel points a very familiar keyblade at the door of Riku's cell, and, in a flash short of light, it eases open. Riku immediately rushes out of the cell, saying something I can't hear, then looks over and sees me. I smirk as the colour drains from his face, he shouts, "Run!" and the two of them race away up the stairs. Without a second thought, I sprint after them. Isn't this cute? A nice little rescue mission.

By the time I catch up to them, careening around a corner, the angel's given Riku a helmet and the wing-shaped keyblade we'd taken from him earlier. They pick up speed as they notice me getting closer, and I have to release a short laugh. I have no real interest in trying to stop them right now. No, this is far too fun. Larxene can electrocute me all she wants later if I lose them, but I have no intention of that either.

When they finally reach a door to outside, a keyblade easily opens that one as well, and I decide they've gone far enough. I can see the light portal waiting for them, probably as close as it can be to the palace. Summoning fire around a chakram, I throw it and throw it, spinning, towards the escaping seraphs. Just as I exit the door as well, the flaming chakram strikes the angel, knocking him over and singeing his feathers, though a plate of armour prevents any real damage. When he lands face-first, keyblade falling from his hand, he does his best to scramble back to his feet, yelling. "Keep going!" after Riku. I quickly close the distance and pounce, knocking him back onto his face with my knees on either side of his hips and my free hand pinning his shoulder to the ground. The other hand pierces the ground next to his helmet with the chakram, one point of it pinning his other shoulder.

I look up from my feathery captive in time to see Riku pause and look back, expression frustrated and helpless, before he steps into the light portal which disappears a second later.

After a couple tense seconds of heavy breathing from both me and the seraph beneath me, I relax and straighten myself up, resting against his soft, unarmoured rear and pushing some wild red strands of hair away from my face. "Well, then. That was fun."

The angel lets out a growl at the sound of my voice and strains to reach the white keyblade. Failing that, he starts battering me with his soft, smoke-smelling wings. "Let me up!"

I easily block the hits with my own wings and chuckle. "Quite the spirited one, huh?" Suddenly, a bit of recognition hits me between the keyblade, his voice, and the struggling. Still protecting myself from his wings, I lean over and sharply pull the helmet off of his head, revealing a scruffy mess of golden blond. A grin immediately bursts across my face. "Well, look at that! We meet again, Blondie." He growls and I laugh. "That's not very polite. Care to give me a name?"

"Fuck off!" he snaps, turning to glare at e with his pretty blue eyes.

I teasingly play with his hair. "Don't be so cruel, Blondie. My name's Axel."

He glowers up at me from under the hair that falls into his face and snarls. "Let me _up_!" he repeats.

"But why?" I teasingly dance my fingers across the back of his neck and he satisfyingly shivers.

"Axel!" With a frown, I look behind me to see Larxene approaching. Took her long enough to get her ass where the shit was going down. "What's going on?" she snaps, the multiple sheer layers flaring threateningly around her.

I chuckle and look back down at the blond angel beneath me. "You interrupted my fun, that's what." I lightly stroke my fingers along the edge of his armour to prove my point.

Stopping beside us, the queen looks scathingly down at him. "This is the one who got in and free the other?" To my surprise, she doesn't look disappointed by the lack of Riku. "Though his pure little mind is blocked from our spellcasters, I think he may be a much better prospect as a hostage." She chuckles. "Wonderful. Axel, bring him in, please, and we'll have a little preliminary interrogation." A twisted smirk curls her lips and she plucks a small feather from the angel's wings as I pull him easily to his feet, holding his wrists ffirmly behind his back. "Welcome to Infernum, angel."

I grin and lean my mouth close to his ear as Larxene walks away. He goes rigid and writhes at my grip as I do. "Welcome to Infernum, Blondie," I purr, excited as to what this may mean.


End file.
